One of the plaintiffs in this case, Stephen L. Desjardins, had his 2016 Kia Optima stolen from his son’s driveway. Later, the complaint for this class action alleges, the vehicle was retrieved “with damage to the front and rear, a hole in the oil pan, and damage to the inside of the car.” The complaint bring suit against Kia America, Inc. and Hyundai Motor America, claiming that the companies have made vehicles with a defect that makes them easy to steal, because they can be operate without a key.
The National Class for this action is all persons in the US who, during the fullest period allowed by law, bought or leased any of the class vehicles for personal use. Michigan and Oklahoma Subclasses have also been defined, for those in the above classes who bought or leased any of the class vehicles for personal use in Michigan or Oklahoma, respectively.
The class vehicles include 2011-2021 Kia vehicles and 2011-2021 Hyundai vehicles.
The vehicles all share the same defect, the complaint alleges, in that they can be easily operated without a proper key or key fob. In fact, the vehicles use a USB interface, the complaint alleges, so that a thief can pull off a portion of the steering column and then insert any available USB cable into the exposed ignition.
The complaint alleges, “Because of this, the Defective Vehicles are easily stolen, and have been stolen at an alarming rate.”
“Additionally,” the complaint alleges, “the Defective Vehicles are also targeted because they do not have safety features that would normally prevent these types of thefts.” That device is “a factory-installed anti-theft device called an immobilizer” that “use[s] a chip (called a transponder) to authenticate a key against a vehicle’s Electronic Control Unit (‘ECU’). … If the ECU does not detect the key, the vehicle will not start.”
The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 114, the complaint says, “requires that vehicles have a starting system that can only be activated with the key and prevents the normal activation of the vehicle’s engine or motor and either steering, or forward self-mobility, of the vehicle, or both, when the key is removed.”
The complaint alleges that YouTube tutorials and other social media posts show clear instructions on how to start the vehicles without a key.
“In Milwaukee alone,” the complaint alleges, “the Defective Vehicles represent up to two-thirds of all vehicle thefts in the city, and have increased up to 2,500 percent year over year.”
The complaint claims that Kia and Hyundai have known about the problem, because they engineered the vehicles and because they get information from both customers and authorized repair centers. The companies began adding immobilizers to some of their new vehicles around 2009, and the complaint claims that their 2022 vehicles do not have the defect. However, the complaint alleges that they have neither fixed the vehicles already on the streets with the defect nor warned consumers about the defect before they buy them.
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Automobile
Most Recent Case Event
Certain Kia and Hyundai Vehicles Can Be Started Without Keys Complaint
September 16, 2022
One of the plaintiffs in this case, Stephen L. Desjardins, had his 2016 Kia Optima stolen from his son’s driveway. Later, the complaint for this class action alleges, the vehicle was retrieved “with damage to the front and rear, a hole in the oil pan, and damage to the inside of the car.” The complaint bring suit against Kia America, Inc. and Hyundai Motor America, claiming that the companies have made vehicles with a defect that makes them easy to steal, because they can be operate without a key.
Certain Kia and Hyundai Vehicles Can Be Started Without Keys ComplaintCase Event History
Certain Kia and Hyundai Vehicles Can Be Started Without Keys Complaint
September 16, 2022
One of the plaintiffs in this case, Stephen L. Desjardins, had his 2016 Kia Optima stolen from his son’s driveway. Later, the complaint for this class action alleges, the vehicle was retrieved “with damage to the front and rear, a hole in the oil pan, and damage to the inside of the car.” The complaint bring suit against Kia America, Inc. and Hyundai Motor America, claiming that the companies have made vehicles with a defect that makes them easy to steal, because they can be operate without a key.
Certain Kia and Hyundai Vehicles Can Be Started Without Keys Complaint